Patriots heading to state finals

The 14-under Patriots will head north to Houghton to play in the state finals on March 9-11. (Courtesy Photo)

Two mid-Michigan youth hockey teams punched their ticket to the state finals over the weekend by winning district championships in Bay City.

The 12-under Patriot team went 5-0 on the weekend to lock up a spot in the state finals in Westland on March 2-4.

They beat Saginaw #1 by a final of 5-0 as goalie Brendan Kusbel posted the shutout in net in their opener before topping Gladwin 3-1 on Saturday. In Saturday’s nightcap Connor Stempky netted a hat trick in a 9-2 win over the Port Huron Warriors.

They then closed it out Sunday with a 5-0 win Port Huron Pure Business in the semifinals before claiming the district title with another 3-1 victory over Gladwin.

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The 14-under Patriots also secured a spot in the state finals as they won the district title by going 3-1.

Cole Apple netted a hat trick in the opener, an 8-4 win over Saginaw, to get the Patriots off and running. A 6-2 defeat to Bay County was the lone loss of the weekend, but was followed up by a 5-0 shutout win over Port Huron as goalie Colton Miller was rock solid in net.

The Patriots topped Bay County 4-2 in the district title game to advance to the state finals which take place in Houghton on March 9-11.

The 12-under and 14-under Patriot teams are the first to advance to the state finals since 2016.

The 10-under team also went 2-1 on the weekend and came up just short of advancing. It beat the GFHA Red (Flint) 7-0 Friday as goalie Ethan Leaman got credit for the shutout in net. Tucker VanAlstine also recorded a hat trick in the win. From there they beat Port Huron 7-0 before falling to Gladwin 11-0.

About the Author

Jim Lahde has been with The Morning Sun sports department since 1997 and has been its Sports Editor since 2006. The Wixom native has covered everything from Little League to the big leagues. Reach the author at jlahde@michigannewspapers.com
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